Not sure if this belongs in swim-related or non-swim-related, but I'll try here first.
Anyone want to share swim meet dreams with me? Actual dreams about swim meets? I think it would make a funny article and might cull your dreams and write about them for our newsletter.
I'll start off with mine.
I'm swimming the 500 free, SCY. There is no water in the pool. I'm pulling myself along the bottom, which is a blue vinyl I can grab hold of. It's disconcerting, but I keep pulling. I am stymied by the wall, however. How on earth do I do a flip turn without any water? I lose time. I am aware I am losing time. I decide to do open turns.
I finish and win. My time: 5:13. (In real life, my best time is 7:07, I think.)
I ask my coach (from childhood) if this is a common experience, to swim a race and not feel that there is any water in the pool, even though there is. He says for women it is a common experience, but for men it is not.
OK. Any weird-o-la swim dreams from Forumland you'd like to share?
:bed:
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Former Member
To date, I have had 85 dreams about swim meets. That is not an approximation. That is an actual count. I have had numerous more about pools and swimming, in general. In the two months leading up to my big meet two weeks ago, I started having swimming dreams every night and there was usually one that took place at a meet.
My favorite involves me swimming in a long-course meet at the Santa Clara pool. It's a big meet. Lots of big names competing. I was swimming in a backstroke final and I took #1. That was when I realized I had just started swimming a year ago (from the point I had this particular dream)... I realized that I couldn't possibly have gotten as fast as quickly as that. So in my second race of the dream- a prelim, probably- I went really slow and my time brought me nowhere near close to qualifying for the final. The dream took a more nightmarish turn, so why is it my favorite? Well, I did still win a backstroke race against big names, and for once in a dream, the meaning was very clear-cut. I was No. 1 when I wasn't self-conscious, when I didn't have the rationale of being a latebloomer to talk myself into swimming slow.
My second favorite actually happened last week. It was a prestigious short-course meet and I took second in the breaststroke final- second in the stroke I have come to hate! The best part of the dream was this breakthrough in technique I seemed to be having with breaststroke. I would make the subtlest move with my legs and hands, and all of a sudden, I could glide so far. I tried to replicate the motions in practice the next day, but didn't really notice any difference.
My least favorite involves a meet that I thought was in San Francisco for some reason. I was walking around the pool deck doing stuff when the head coach of my team and my dad both started querying me, "Are you Michael Phelps? Are you Michael Phelps? Are you Michael Phelps?" and on and on and on... It was an annoying dream.
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Former Member
To date, I have had 85 dreams about swim meets. That is not an approximation. That is an actual count. I have had numerous more about pools and swimming, in general. In the two months leading up to my big meet two weeks ago, I started having swimming dreams every night and there was usually one that took place at a meet.
My favorite involves me swimming in a long-course meet at the Santa Clara pool. It's a big meet. Lots of big names competing. I was swimming in a backstroke final and I took #1. That was when I realized I had just started swimming a year ago (from the point I had this particular dream)... I realized that I couldn't possibly have gotten as fast as quickly as that. So in my second race of the dream- a prelim, probably- I went really slow and my time brought me nowhere near close to qualifying for the final. The dream took a more nightmarish turn, so why is it my favorite? Well, I did still win a backstroke race against big names, and for once in a dream, the meaning was very clear-cut. I was No. 1 when I wasn't self-conscious, when I didn't have the rationale of being a latebloomer to talk myself into swimming slow.
My second favorite actually happened last week. It was a prestigious short-course meet and I took second in the breaststroke final- second in the stroke I have come to hate! The best part of the dream was this breakthrough in technique I seemed to be having with breaststroke. I would make the subtlest move with my legs and hands, and all of a sudden, I could glide so far. I tried to replicate the motions in practice the next day, but didn't really notice any difference.
My least favorite involves a meet that I thought was in San Francisco for some reason. I was walking around the pool deck doing stuff when the head coach of my team and my dad both started querying me, "Are you Michael Phelps? Are you Michael Phelps? Are you Michael Phelps?" and on and on and on... It was an annoying dream.